Well, you can cross another game off my list of what I am most excited to play this year. Today, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time was released to little fan fare, mainly because a little game called Dead Space 3 came out as well. Why am I not excited about Dead Space 3? For the same reasons I talked about last night with Borderlands. I haven't played any of the games in the series, and until I do, I don't foresee myself getting into the third ... just yet.

So instead of the game everyone else is playing today, I opted for the fourth installment of the long-dormant Sly Cooper franchise. I worked my way through the first three games over the last couple of months, obtaining the Platinum trophy in all of them, and because those games were so, so good, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this new game.

For one, this is the first one made for the PS3. That's crazy to think about, right? Sly Cooper 3 was released in 2005 for the PS2, and of course was later released for the PS3 as part of the Sly Cooper Collection. Also, this is the first Sly Cooper game not to be developed by the Sucker Punch studio, who moved on to the infamous InFamous franchise for the PS3. All these uncertainties, topped off by the fact that Sony not only refused to market this game in any way, but also gave it a price drop before the game came out (to $39.99), would be enough for me to be very cautious about what I would be getting into.

I didn't sweat it, though. It's a Sly Cooper game. How could they possibly screw up a Sly Cooper game? Well...

They didn't. They nailed it. Maybe an hour into the game, and I already know this is by far the best Sly Cooper game to date. The graphics are beautiful, the voice acting/dialogue/writing is spot on and memorable, the story is fascinating in only a way Sly Cooper could make it, and the updates to the familiar game play are outstanding. Even the little things like upgrading the "hacking" mini-game that Bentley uses to hack computer systems looks amazing. So amazing, my seven year old noticed how much better it looked. Also, the new look of the coins and treasures are perfectly designed.

Scanning through the trophy list makes me excited to see how much time I will need to put into this game to get the Platinum trophy, but if the rest of the game is anything like the beginning, then I will be in for a treat.

Another awesome thing I haven't even mentioned yet is the Cross-Buy promotion for this game. In buying the PS3 version of the game, you also get the Vita version absolutely free. Better yet, you can cross-save, so anything you do in the game on one console, you can snag the save file and play it from that save point on the other console, and vise versa. Also ... double trophies. Yeah, you heard me right. Get a trophy in one version of the game, it automatically pops for the other version. Can't complain with double trophies ... ever.

Also, apparently you can use the Vita in some way while playing the PS3 version, as a scanner of some sorts, but I haven't even bothered to look into that. The more time I waste fooling around with downloads and what not, the less time I spend playing this game.

The only bad thing I have to say about this, so far, is that it is definitely taking gaming time away from other games I am working on or thinking about playing, like DmC. And with a steady stream of top-notch games about to come down the pipe, my backlog is in serious jeopardy of getting congested. Since when did having too many good games to play become a problem? Just wait until the summer time, when everyone is starting to brace for the next round of new consoles. No one will be complaining about having a backlog then.